It rained heavily on the day of the public meeting but Dr Lohia managed to raise the issues of civil liberties and also of freedom from Portuguese Rule. He was arrested and put in Mudgaon jail. Mahatma Gandhi criticised the arrest and incarceration of Lohia in his newspaper ‘Harijan’ and extended his support to Goa’s liberation. Sensing the public mood, the Portuguese took Lohia to the border and released him there. A ban was placed on any future entry by him into Goa for the next five years. Lohia promised to return within three months. But while he was unable to return, his socialist associates began mobilising Goans, who were keen that Lohia should lead their struggle. But Gandhiji wanted Goans to be at the forefront. After Partition also, leaders of newly Independent India had little time to spare for Goa as they grappled with crises and the task of nation-building. They were reluctant to engage in a military confrontation with Portugal which was a member of NATO.But Lohia, true to his word, returned to Goa. He was again arrested from the railway station and deported. Mahatma Gandhi once again came out in support. As socialists intensified their struggle to liberate Goa, they received a fillip when Pondicherry became free from the French in 1954.Tridib Chaudhuri of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), PSP (Praja Socialist party) leader SM Joshi and others like Nath Pai and NG Gore also led the political struggle to free Goa. Madhu Limaye was sentenced by the Portuguese to two years in jail while Tridib Chaudhuri was sentenced to 12 years. In the adjacent forests of Karnataka, Lydia Lobo and her associates continued to broadcast from ‘Free Goan Radio’ in Portuguese and in Konkani.When the Portuguese troops opened fire on Indian fishermen in November 1961 and killed one of them, it provided India with the pretext for military action.(Translated from the original in Hindi)(This article was first published in National Herald on Sunday.)
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